by Susan Davis, USA TODAY

by Susan Davis, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - Former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan has intentionally kept a low profile since Election Day, but the Wisconsin Republican is settling back in to his role as the GOP's budget guru and establishing for himself a new leadership role in the fiscal fights ahead.

"I wanted to stay out of it from the election to the inauguration because I thought that was sort of the polite thing to do," Ryan told reporters at a roundtable hosted by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "Obviously, the inauguration is over so we're here talking."

Ryan said he e-mails regularly with former running mate Mitt Romney and the two men plan to have lunch soon. Romney's role in the Republican Party will be "whatever he wants to do" and Ryan said that Romney is still mulling what role he wants to play. One thing is certain for the former Massachusetts governor: "He's obviously not thinking about doing any other races."

Ryan shot down a reporter's question about his potential presidential aspirations. "No," he laughed. "I just finished one of those."

Ryan will also appear Sunday on NBC's Meet The Press.

Reflecting on his national run, Ryan said the experience has made him less risk averse, citing his vote in support of the New Year's "fiscal cliff" deal opposed by a majority of House Republicans, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

"The way I looked at that bill: We believed it needed to pass. I believed it needed to pass. And if you believe a piece of legislation needs to pass then you should vote for it and not worry about the criticism that comes with it," he said, arguing the bill achieved a GOP victory in making permanent certain tax rates. "We couldn't even get this stuff when we had the House and Senate and George W. Bush in office. Take it," he said.

Ryan, who attended President Obama's inauguration, was critical of his speech. "The president continues to shadow box straw men," Ryan said, criticizing Democrats for accusing Republicans of wanting to eliminate entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. "Who is against Social Security and Medicare?" Ryan said.

He is the architect of a plan to dramatically revamp Medicare from a guaranteed benefit to a premium support program that would provide seniors with funds to purchase insurance from private insurance. Republicans argue their proposal would guarantee the benefit's long-term viability. Democrats, including Obama, call it a way to shift Medicare to a voucher system.

Ryan said Republicans are changing the way they look at governing in a divided Washington, describing it as "principled prudence" in the new Congress.

In particularly, Republicans are focused on using a series of upcoming deadlines facing spending cuts, government funding, federal budgets and the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling to extract spending cuts and changes to reduce the deficit.

"The way we see it, our value add to the political system at the moment, of all things, is to help prevent a debt crisis," he said. He conceded that Republicans are unlikely to extract major entitlement changes, but that the GOP will lay out its vision in its budget "to prepare ourselves, hopefully, for one day actually implementing these things."

Ryan said his budget blueprint this year will balance the budget in 10 years - a dramatic turnaround from his previous budget that didn't achieve balance for about three decades. Republicans also pledge to do it without any new revenue.

"I do believe we can hit those targets. It's going to involve some differences from some past budgets that we've offered," Ryan said, although he declined to offer any specifics.

While the two parties are deeply divided on fiscal policy, Ryan said he believed there was potential for bipartisanship for an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. He also said there was potential for legislative action following the elementary school shooting massacre in Newtown, Conn. However Ryan signaled there would be little support for a renewed assault-weapons ban in the GOP-controlled House.

"Let's have a civil debate and let's have a debate based upon what is good policy and effective policy," he said, "Recycled policies of the past that have not proven to be successful may take our eyes off the ball of actually working on polices that might actually be successful," he said, in reference to the assault weapons ban.

As for the role of the National Rifle Association in the gun debate, Ryan said he had not seen its latest ad invoking Obama's daughters and the Secret Service protection they are provided, but he was critical of it. "Our kids are out of bounds," he said, noting that the Obama campaign respected the privacy of Ryan's own children, "And we're grateful for that."

But Ryan made it clear that he's focused on the future, shrugging off questions about the 2012 campaign.

"Clearly I thought about the woulda-coulda-shouldas, but I already processed that thinking after the election and during the holidays," he said, "You basically have to dust yourself off and get back to work."